


The Princess and the Dwarf

by inheritanceofgeek



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bed time stories, F/M, Fluff, Fígrid February, Kid Fic, Parenthood, Post-Battle of Five Armies, Tiny bit of Angst because I'm me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 13:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9551252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inheritanceofgeek/pseuds/inheritanceofgeek
Summary: In which Crowned Prince Fíli tells a bed time story to his two youngest, most troublesome children.It is not just any story though, oh no, this is the story of how a princess, long disguised as a bargeman's daughter, and a simple dwarf apprentice managed to find love in the most unlikely of times.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This started life out as a WhatsApp message to MagicMarker, which then got tidied up and put on tumblr and has now been tidied up even more and put on AO3. 
> 
> It is inspired by Sam Vime's dedication to reading "Where's My Cow?."

Rune stones were more than just talismans. They were oaths, promises put down in unbreakable, everlasting stone. Once accepted they could not be returned and you had to fulfil the promise or else face the consequences. Fìli held a runestone in his pocket at all times.   
  
It said "amkubê" which meant 6:00pm, every day, landslide or gold rush. It more often than not also meant running, panicking and a few insulted noblemen.   
  
"I don't see why their nanny can't do it! What's the point in having one if you don't use them." Huffed Lord Flòki.   
  
"If he'd have just seen sense married an actual dwarf he'd not be in this mess." Added Lady Unna snidely.   
  
However Crowned Prince Fìli had already fled the room. There were more important things in life than mining rights and clan disputes.   
  
"Now come on you dirty little badgers and settle down before your father gets here!"   
  
"Too late, he's  _ already _ here!" Grinned Eikin smugly, twisting round mid jump. His sister, Éolist, gave out a war cry and hurled herself towards her father. Fìli gave out a theatrical winded noise.   
  
"Ambushed in my own Kingdom!" He cried, securing his grasp around her as Éolist pretending to fight him off. It was a game he remembered playing with his own father. Her brother went back to bouncing on the bed, this time out of excitement. The blankets were a complete mess and the general chatter suggested that bedtime was all but canceled.   
  
"Eikin, Éolist,” warned their nanny, a raging fire burning in her eyes now “if you don't behave I will make certain that there will be no story tonight  _ at all _ , or any night there after!”    
  
"No, Dara, it’s fine! Leave them to me. I'm their father, I've got this."   
  
Dara gave out an unconvinced noise but left them to it nonetheless. Despite her words she’d never actually stop Fìli from reading to them. She knew how much it all meant to them, especially to Lady Sigrid.     
  
"Come on you two," Fìli sighed, dropping Éolist onto the bed; where she promptly pulled on her brother's ankles to drag him down with her "You should be nicer to Dara, she's the one who has to run everything around here."   
  
"Yeah, but  _ you're _ the Crowned Prince. So really we just need to be nice to you."   
  
"No Eik, we don't! We need to be nice to Uncle Thorin because  _ he's _ the King."   
  
Fìli let out a noise of dramatic hurt "Well! If you would rather have Uncle Thorin here I can go get Uncle--"   
  
" _ Nooo _ !" Chorused the twins, reaching out to grab him by the sleeve.   
  
"We're sorry! We'll be good!"   
  
"We promise! Please stay,  _ please _ !"   
  
"Well alright then." Sighed Fìli, flopping bavk down into his chair, trying his best to hide his smile at their triumphant cheers.  "So what story do you want to hear, the Three Little Goats? The Raven and the Mining Stone? Snow Beard and the Seven Elves?"   
  
"The Princess and the Dwarf!" They said in unison.   
  
"Again?" he asked, raising a weary eyebrow. That story always took it out of him. So many years on, and it was still mingled with same pain and happiness. He wanted all his children to know it, the twins most of all, but it didn't make it any easier for him.   
  
"Yep! It's our favourite." grinned Éolist "Plus you can never do the voices right for the 3 goats; Uncle Kìli can though."   
  
"But we don't want him we want you!" Added Eikin quickly, ignoring his sister before she could get them into anymore trouble.   
  
"Alright fine, but you better keep quiet during it."   
  
The pair of them nodded, and crawled closer to listen.   
  
"Well,” he began “as you are both aware, every dwarf knows the story of Smaug the terrible and how a band of silly dwarves, and one brave hobbit, set out to defeat him and reclaim their home." Fìli always made certain to include Bilbo in the story. Without him they would all have died a hundred times over. "Some even tell the story of Elven Siren's seduction of the innocent Dwarf Prince,"   
  
"That one's rubbish though," whispered Éolist "everyone knows Auntie Tauriel's the one who got seduced."   
  
"But, the one they often miss out," Fìli continued, ignoring his daughter's very accurate statement "is the story of the young princess and the simple dwarf who fell in love with her."   
  
The kids squished closer towards him, Eikin clambering into his lap whilst Éolist snuggled deeper into his arms. They curled up close to his warmth, and their large blue eyes made Fìli's heart melt just as it had when they'd first opened them. He took a breath, and continued on with their story.   
  
"The princess was not  _ always _ a princess you see. Whilst she was brave, and kind, and beautiful and all the other qualities a princess should be,” Éolist gave a snort of laughter at that but didn’t interrupt any further, “the girl was in actual fact, the daughter of a bargeman. As her mother had died very young, she spent most of her days playing mother to her two younger siblings. But the princess did not mind, for she loved her family more than anything else.   
  
"They were very poor though, and as such her father had to take up some less than legal practices. One day he returned to their house with 13 dwarves and one hobbit. They gave her quite the shock when they climbed up out of the princess' toilet!   
  
"Yet still she showed them kindness, handing out warm blankets and clean clothes. She even made them tea, though some were perhaps not as grateful as they should have been.   
  
“Later that night, the dwarves snuck out the house to try and steal some weapons to help get to the mountain, but were caught in the act and almost arrested! However their leader promised the town that if they helped the dwarves get to the mountain, then he would reward them with piles of silver and gold.   
  
"The Bargeman was not do easily swayed though. He knew the danger the dragon posed and warned them all about what their task would involve, but the silly dwarves ignored him.   
  
"Unknown to some, though, one of the dwarves them had been injured on their journey to the mountain by a orc’s poisoned arrow. The wound had only gotten worse, but he still longed to see their mountain home before he died. Their leader refused to let him come with them and left him by the lakeside. However the dwarf's brother had made a promise not to leave him, and he always kept his promises. The brothers went looking for help, but the only home that would take them in was that of the princess.   
  
"She set about trying to fix the wound as best she could, using every skill she knew. They were not left alone for long though and we're soon set upon by vicious orcs. The princess was very brave though, and did all she could to protect her siblings, just as the dwarf had tried to protect his own brother. When the elves arrived to save the dwarves, the Princess wasted no time getting back to helping the injured dwarf. Slowly, with the aid of mysterious elvish magic, the dwarf's brother got better!   
  
“In that moment of peace the dwarf and the princess talked about their lives and about each other. They had a lot more in common than one might think at first, and a close bond began to form between them, just a small seed but given time it would grow to be so much more.   
  
“When the dragon came down from the mountain they all escaped in a boat together, the princess making sure they all had hats and scarves to keep them warm. She did not waver, even though her father was missing and she was about to lose be everything that she'd ever known; their house, filled with all the memories of her mother, was burnt to cinders.   
  
“By the will of the Valar they'd somehow all survived. It was even the princess' own father and brother who worked together to kill the dragon and save the town! They brought an end to the dragon’s terror where the dwarves had failed numerously.    
  
"Later by the shore the dwarves set out to discover if their own family had survived. The dwarf tried to return the princess' scarf however she refused it, claiming that he could return it to her later once all things were settled.   
  
"All the meanwhile though, the orcs had been planning their next attack and as soon as the princess and the dwarf were thrown together, they were torn apart. There was a battle you see, as everyone tried to defend the mountain from the attacking orcs. It was not the kind of battle you hear about in legends where the good survive and the evil die, for this was a real battle and that means blood shed. Elves, men and dwarves alike, all gave their lives so as the mountain would remain a stronghold to keep people safe in the future.” 

When he became a father himself, Fìli had sworn to never glorify their battles. He knew now that they were never glorious or noble, but rather filled to the brim with pain and suffering. Battles were best avoided, if they could be. That way you understood why you were fighting the ones you  _ needed _ to.   
  
“The dwarf had thought himself to have died on the battlefield when he’d taken a sword to the chest, yet a voice inside him kept him fighting and when he awoke it was to the princess' melody. She'd been caring for him; cleaning his dressings and keeping infection at bay, all the while singing a gentle tune.   
  
“Once more, the dwarf tried to return her scarf but again, she refused; it was winter, and he would still have use for it. The dwarf argued back that if it were so cold then  _ she _ would need it too, but the princess  _ insisted _ on calling the scarf a present. The dwarf cherished it more than any gift he'd had before.   
  
“He healed and slowly life returned to the mountain. The men had set up a new home and the two nations began to broker a lasting peace. The dwarf and the princess wrote many letters to one another in that time, and slowly grew to know each other more deeply than they'd have ever thought possible. They shared their hopes, their worries, their dream, and especially the nightmares that still plagued them featuring all the horrendous sights they'd seen. They saught comfort in one another, and if you were to read those letters you would see the deep love they bore.   
  
“However, this was apparently  _ not _ so clear to the lovers themselves. A dwarf and a man was not a relationship people had heard of before. Indeed, it was not until the subject of marriage was raised that they even  _ realised _ what they were feeling. You see, for men, finding a spouse is not about discovering your One and sharing that love with the rest of the world; it was a business contract. This was especially true amongst royals, whose marriages were often used to seal political alliances.   
  
“The dwarf understood this. Or at least he  _ attempted _ to. However he could not stand the fact that the princess was to be married to someone she had not even met! He tried to be respectful, however his fear that she would be unhappy ate away at him morning, noon and night.   
  
“The dwarf ended up going down to the city to speak to her. He wanted to be sure that she was happy to be married in this way. The princess smiled, and told him how excited she was over the wedding preparations, but the dwarf could see that she was blatantly lying.    
  
“He told her this; that he could not stand by and watch the princess marry for anything other than love.   
  
“In surprised fury, she asked him  _ who else _ she could marry? Who else would give her people all they needed? If she married simply for alliances then it would mean her siblings could avoid the same fate. Plus it wasn't as though there was someone else waiting for her!   
  
“But the dwarf realised that there  _ was someone else who wanted to become her spouse _ ; he didn't know how to say it. So instead he respected her wishes and left her alone.   
  
“The day of the wedding finally ticked around. The dwarf felt powerless to stop it. There could be nothing else anyone could do.   
  
“He still went to the wedding though, for even if she did not return his feelings the dwarf still wished to remain her friend. To everyone's surprise though the wedding was stopped mid ceremony! Not by the princess as you might think, but by her groom! He told the room that he could not marry the princess because it would not be fair on her to be married to someone who could never love her the way she deserved. He would also not allow his own heart's desires to be ignored anymore. He fled the building, leaving everyone in total uproar.   
  
"The dwarf was in a fuming rage that anyone could possibly hurt his beloved in this way! He went to find her, thinking her to be in tears but instead she was laughing.   
  
"The dwarf asked her why, and she confessed that she'd considered doing the exact same thing; except her groom had got there first.   
  
"The dwarf was confused. Who could it be she was in love with?   
  
"The princess continued to laugh and told him he really was sillier than any other dwarf in the land and finally kissed him. It was the kind of kiss you hear about in fairy tales. A kiss of true love that makes all the world come to a stand still.   
  
“Though many would try and stop them from being together, the lovers never let it bother them. The pair married, and never were they happier than when they were together. Despite what many might have said, their love made both their kingdoms stronger. And so the princess and the dwarf lived happily ever after, till the end of their days."   
  
There was complete silence for a moment. Fìli involuntarily pulled his children closer to him, feeling suddenly desperate to never let them go.   
  
"I miss Mam." came a small voice at last.   
  
"Me too my little colt. Me too."   
  
"I wish she could tell us the story instead, Frerin said she was really good at bed time stories."   
  
"Kendra said she was  _ much _ better at telling your story than you  _ ever _ were."   
  
Fìli gave a small chuckle, willing himself not to cry. It wasn't fair that they did not know their mother. They were only twenty-four when she'd died.   
  
The healers had said it was her heart in the end. Sudden attacks like that were not unexpected at her age. But sixty was no age for a dwarf. 

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoyed this? Please let me know via comments/kudos or on tumblr where I'm Mrsmarymorstan. 
> 
> Happy Fígrid February! 
> 
> Geek
> 
> xXx


End file.
